Femi Falana, a rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, has written to the Central Bank of Nigeria demanding information on the number of new naira notes distributed to commercial banks across the country.
Additionally, he insisted that the CBN provide a list of customers who had withdrawn more money than the N100,000 cap authorized by the central bank.
The CBN has insisted that there are plenty of fresh N200, N500, and N1,000 notes available and has accused politicians of hoarding the new notes.
Falana demanded that the CBN provide information on how the new notes were distributed to commercial banks in a letter from Falana Chambers dated February 16, 2023 and signed by Femi Adedeji, ESQ.
The letter partly read, “Our attention has been drawn to your statement wherein you claimed that some unnamed politicians have mopped up the new naira notes made available to all commercial banks by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“We are compelled to request you to furnish us with information concerning the amount of the designed notes of N200, N500 and N1,000 denominations made available to each commercial bank by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“Furthermore, we also request you to furnish us with the list of customers of the commercial banks who collected more than N100,000 approved by you from the commercial banks.
He further threatened to take a legal action if the CBN failed to provide the information in seven days.
“As this request is made pursuant to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2011, you are required to accede to our request within seven days of the receipt of this letter.
“TAKE NOTICE that if you fail or refuse to furnish us with the requested information before the deadline of seven days we shall not hesitate to pray the Federal High Court to compel you to accede to our request.”